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Multicolored Game Changers
Aura Shards
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control enters, you may destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Aura Shards: Punishes opponents by destroying artifacts and enchantments whenever a creature enters the battlefield. It's one of the most controversial game changer choices: on one hand, it's a simple three-mana answer, on the other hand, it can be extremely oppressive against the numerous artifact- or enchantment-based decks, which risk losing permanents for free every turn.
Coalition Victory: An immediate win condition if you control permanents of all five colors. It might seem difficult to achieve at first glance, but between multicolored creatures and lands with multiple (or all) land types, it's easier than expected.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV: Another particularly hated commander. It reduces the cost of your own spells and increases the cost of opponents' spells, creating a constant and asymmetrical advantage. While not strong enough to warrant a ban, it makes many games extremely slow and convoluted.
Notion Thief: Steals additional draws from opponents, punishing decks that heavily use card draw effects. Thanks to Flash, it can enter in response to a draw spell and immediately generate a huge card advantage.
Colorless Game Changers
Ancient Tomb
Land
: Add
. This land deals 2 damage to you.
Ancient Tomb: Produces two mana from a single land as early as turn one. The two life points required are generally a negligible cost in Commander.
Chrome Mox: Accelerates mana at the cost of exiling a card from your hand. It's one of the most debated game changers: it generates card disadvantage and is a poor topdeck, especially compared to Sol Ring, which is perfectly legal and present in almost all Commander decks.
Field of the Dead: Generates an army of Zombies that grows with the number of differently named lands you control. Until you play against it, it's hard to realize how quickly it can take over a game.
Gaea's Cradle: Produces enormous amounts of mana proportional to the number of creatures you control. In the color that creates the most tokens, it's one of the most explosive lands ever printed.
Glacial Chasm: Offers almost total protection from damage and becomes extremely difficult to manage in long games, thanks to numerous ways to recover lands from the graveyard.
Grim Monolith
Artifact
This artifact doesn't untap during your untap step.
: Add
.
: Untap this artifact.
Grim Monolith: Provides three mana as early as turn one and interacts with many cards that allow you to untap it, easily paving the way for infinite mana combos.
Lion's Eye Diamond: A historical combo piece that generates three mana of any color by sacrificing itself. It's often used to quickly cast the commander and is the more challenging sibling of the late Jeweled Lotus.
Mana Vault: Explosive acceleration as early as turn one, similar to Grim Monolith. Beyond its inherent strength, it takes little to untap it repeatedly and generate infinite mana.
Mishra's Workshop: Produces enormous amounts of mana dedicated to artifacts. A turn one Stax artifact played thanks to this land is enough to make the evening far less pleasant for the rest of the table.
Mox Diamond: Free Mox at the cost of discarding a land. It's slightly stronger than Chrome Mox, because it can create synergies with the graveyard and doesn't require cards of a specific color.
Panoptic Mirror
Artifact
Imprint — ,
: You may exile an instant or sorcery card with mana value X from your hand.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may copy a card exiled with this artifact. If you do, you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.
Panoptic Mirror: Allows you to copy the same spell every turn. It's a card that generates extremely repetitive patterns and opens the door to the worst abuses, such as continuously repeating spells that grant extra turns.
Serra's Sanctum: Produces mana based on the number of enchantments controlled, becoming an impressive resource source in Enchantress decks. It's considered one of the best mana lands ever printed alongside Gaea's Cradle and the banned Tolarian Academy.
The One Ring: Offers immediate protection and a huge amount of draws, with a drawback that is generally easy to manage. The absence of color requirements makes it playable almost anywhere.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: Taxes creature upkeep and can put go-wide decks in enormous difficulty. It's one of the most hated lands in the format, and its entry onto the battlefield is often accompanied by groans from the entire table.

Are all game changers at the same level?
A question many players ask is whether all game changers have the same impact. The short answer is no.
The strength of these cards highly depends on the Bracket they are played in. A perfect example is Notion Thief: in Bracket 3, it is particularly effective because the primary way to gain card advantage is through drawing. In Brackets 4 and 5, however, where tutors are used much more intensely, its impact significantly diminishes.
In these contexts, cards like Opposition Agent become decidedly more oppressive, as they are able to directly punish one of the most used mechanics by high-level decks.
Until next time, ExLo05 and Junius Halsey
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